I decided that their aren't enough self-proclaimed movie experts who post their reviews online. It's hard to find out what people think about blockbuster movies these days (sarcasm intended). With that in mind, I thought I should increase the pool of untrained online movie reviewers who, well, review movies online.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is easily the best movie of the bunch. The others (even the great Prisoner of Azkaban) just tried too hard. They used spectacle to numb minds into thinking that something more substantial was happening. This is a real movie with real motives and real people. There is only one scene (when Dumbledore and Harry pick up Slughorn) that magic is meant to be showy and exciting, but Dumbledore's self-deprecating lines makes it seem less forced and showy and more fun.
The director, David Yates, does a good job of pacing and of keeping things interesting by focusing on the characters, their thoughts, struggles, and motives. This is a very romantic movie, true to the emotions and feelings of the characters. It is confident in making changes and adding what is appropriate to create a real story out of a very complicated mess of Rowling's book.
Jim Broadbent as Professor Slughorn shows depth that isn't in the books. Broadbent's Slughorn is a sad, pathetic, and broken man. His life's ambitions have brought little of what matters in the end, and this aging, reaching character is brought to sad and satirical life by a great actor. Between Broadbent, Gambon, and Rickman, I sometimes forgot that this movie was about the very able Daniel Radcliffe's character.
Michael Gambon's Dumbledore is less intrusive and more somber, I assume because he has enough screen time in this movie to get his views across more subtly than he has in the past.
Daniel Radcliffe gets better and better as Harry. He never disappoints with his thoughtful performance. He is no kid actor anymore and could carry any part handily. I think I might have had as much fun watching Harry take the Felix Felices potion as Radcliffe had acting outside his normal Potter role--it was hard to tell. He was brilliantly funny.
Alan Rickman is a perfect Snape as usual. He also gets more screen time, so he changes his normally cold, comic relief performance into something with a little more bite to it.
Thank goodness Emma Watson gave up her quavering Hermione voice for more subdued speech. She is not overacting in this one and doesn't deliver a bad line. In fact, most of her lines aren't just adequate, they are sensitive and truly thoughtful.
Rupert Grint is reduced to dumb show and Monty Python-esque comic relief. He let his quiet charm in awkward situations be the laughs in the previous film, but in this one, he is less than charming and maybe even annoying.
Bonnie Wright's Ginny is very good. Thank heavens they finally put some make-up on her and had Harry stand on a box when next to her.
Tom Felton is a much deeper Draco Malfoy instead of the bumbling creep he's played until now. He shows a real struggle and is looking a little like James Stewart, though he doesn't quite show the flair. I know he has it: I loved him in Anna and the King.
This movie is shot as beautifully as Prisoner of Azkaban, though less flambouyantly (which is probably a good thing). The color palette has lots of grays and earth tones with shots of bright, warm colors at dramatic moments (like when Dumbledore is defending Harry from an army of dead people puppets with a wall of fire issuing from his wand). Speaking of dead people puppets, I'm surprised every kid and nerdy adult collector in the world doesn't have their own army of dead people puppets. Toys R Us, here's a hint: make little dead people puppets, like the molded red plastic cowboys and Indians I used to play with before I cared that the poor Indians always lost.
The music is a lot more grown up than John Williams's melodic bells and simple strings. This music has a soul to it that I wouldn't expect in a "children's movie" (which this probably isn't, by the way, because they'd be bored out of their minds with the character development and leisurely pacing).
Anyone else love this Harry Potter? I had a lot of fun. I've had to convince my wife twice already that "we don't need to go see it again today, Honey. We just say it yesterday."
